AEGEE Newsletter

EU Studies Fair 2018

AEGEE-Europe’s Reaction on the YES Europe Programme

On 27th November, the Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament adopted the new YES Europe programme for youth, education and sport. This merges all the EU programmes in the field of education, training and sport, as well as Erasmus in the framework of a single programme.

AEGEE-Europe welcomes the adoption of the “YES Europe” programme by the Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament, a proposition put forward by Member of the European Parliament Doris Pack, in response to the Erasmus for All proposal by the European Commission. The “YES Europe” proposal is still to be voted upon by the European Parliament in 2013.

AEGEE supports the fact that the “YES Europe” proposal – which stands for “Youth, Education, Sport Europe”, a title much more inclusive than “Erasmus For All” – is actually ensuring a separate budget line for youth, therefore stressing the importance of youth funded activities, and is finally mentioning the operational grants, which are needed to ensure the viability of the work of European youth organizations. Moreover, AEGEE acknowledges the fact that an effort has been made in order to modernise and simplify the administrative measures to be used in the programme, making it more youth friendly.

AEGEE which has been, during recents months, advocating in favor of a more youth-focused programme than Erasmus for All was proposing, is relieved to see that the European Parliament has taken into account some of the youth organisations’ requests. On the other hand, AEGEE still wishes for a better inclusion of youth in the management of the programme, and regrets that the participation of youth organisations and civil society in the management of the programme is not taken into consideration.